


The Town of Andromeda

by kitkatt0430



Series: Spooktober - 2019 [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anxiety, Asexual Character, Asexual Lesbian, F/F, Horror, Lesbian Character, Sort Of, Twilight Zone inspired, Unsettling, did the population count just go down again?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 02:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20900465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: Tina wakes up with the unsettling feeling that the town of Andromeda isn't quite what it used to be.





	The Town of Andromeda

The town of Andromeda has 4,063 residents.

* * *

Tina wakes up with the unsettling feeling that something has gone quietly wrong.

Maybe its just waking up alone in her bed. Usually Amanda wakes up after she does, but Amanda can be heard puttering around in the kitchen already. Not too surprising, though. Amanda has a presentation she has to give at work this morning, so the plan was for her to head in a little earlier than usual to review everything first.

Tina gets up and pulls on a robe over her pajamas and pads out to the kitchen. Amanda kisses her good morning and hands her a cup of coffee - a reversal of their normal morning routine. Normally Tina likes the rare mornings where their habits get flipped around.

But this morning it just seems to reinforce that something is not right.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Amanda asks, giving Tina a worried look. "You're all pale. Not coming down with anything are you?"

"Just a case of existential dread," Tina replies, not really joking. "I'm fine. Probably just didn't get enough sleep."

"Really? Because you conked out before I did. Had to bookmark your place and put the tablet away." Amanda reached out and put the back of her hand against Tina's forehead. "You don't feel like you've got a fever. But maybe you should take the day off?"

"I'll look better after a shower," Tina insisted, taking a long drink of her coffee. "Feel better too, once the caffeine kicks in, anyway."

"If you're sure," Amanda sighed. "I love you. See you this evening."

"Love you too."

* * *

The town of Andromeda has 3,942 residents.

* * *

Unlike Amanda, Tina can walk to work.

Amanda commutes nearly an hour down the highway to the nearby city of Bellview. Tina keeps saying they should just move there, save on the commute time. After all, that's two hours every day that Amanda should get to enjoy with Tina, but the truth is that property values are simply too high in Bellview.

Halfway to work, Tina shrieks and has to jump out of the way as a car barrels through a four way stop, plows through a stop sign, and rams into an old oak tree. She's breathing hard as she gets up off the ground, grass stains on her skirt as she walks cautiously up to the car. Not sure if she's about to give someone a piece of her mind or render aid, she peers into the driver's side window... but the car is empty.

Cautiously, Tina reaches in and turns off the car, pulls out the keys and drops them in the driver's seat. Then she looks around, trying to figure out where the driver could've gotten too. Surely Tina would've seen them.

There are some kids playing in a front yard a few houses down, acting like they hadn't even noticed the crash.

Tina hurries over to the kids and asks them if they saw anyone get out of the car.

"Zap. Zap. Zap," one of the kids says in a robotic monotone, pointing first to one child, then another, then at Tina. "You have all been struck by my ray gun."

"Hahaha," cries out one of the other two kids, "my personal force field protects me from your ray gun."

"Hey, kids, did you see anyone get out of the car that just crashed?"

"What car that just crashed?" asked the third kid. Then, to their friends, the kid asked, "what abilities does a Gallifreyan have again?"

"That car... crash..." Tina turned around gesturing only to trail off.

The car was gone.

She went back to the corner. The tree was still damaged, the stop sign flattened, the ground showing evidence of a car gone through... but no car.

Frowning, Tina tried to remember when the wreck happened at the corner.

There were no grass stains on her skirt when she walked into work.

* * *

The town of Andromeda has 3,742 residents.

* * *

Tina works as a manager at a bookshop. Their town was too small for Barnes and Nobles to bother with, though they had a Borders once. It was part of the first wave of closings, though, and most of the unsold books wound up at a little store called Ragnarok Books. Tina started working there after the Borders closed, one of the few employees to stay in town instead of pulling up roots and moving on.

Sometimes she wonders if she should've left then, too. There'd been a job in Grapevine she'd been considering... but if she'd taken it and moved, she'd never have met Amanda at the cramped little cafe in Bellview where, once a month, there's an ace meetup. It'd been love at first terrible cake pun for Tina, with Amanda needing a little more time and a few dates to feel the same.

They'd moved in together a few months ago and they couldn't be happier, but...

Tina's been feeling more and more lately like they need to get out of Andromeda. There's been an itch in the back of her mind for days now, but something about that quiet walk to work this morning has Tina extra spooked. She can't put her finger on what it is, but maybe...

"Excuse me, but how much would this book be?" a patron interrupts Tina from her thoughts and she takes the book to check the sticker on the back.

The sticker is damaged, both the price and the lookup number are missing, so Tina tries searching by the title and author, though the search program has always been a little wonky. "Let's see, _Amanda Miranda_, a book about two women on the Titanic... four dollars," Tina replied. "Are you going to keep looking or do you want to go ahead and checkout now?'

"I'm going to browse a little bit longer," the patron tells her. Mind if I leave the book here until I'm done?"

"That'll be fine," Tina agreed, though she was already frowning at a stack of books that should've been shelved already. That was...

That was someone else's job, wasn't it? Yes, it was... it was... Tina was the only employee in the store. She'd have to do it herself.

"I'll be shelving books, so when you're ready to check out, come find me in the stacks," Tina says. But no one comes to get her and when she goes back to the front desk, there aren't any books on hold.

She isn't sure why she thinks there should be a book on hold there, though. No one but her's come in today. Business hasn't been good in a while.

Probably time to get out while she can.

* * *

The town of Andromeda has 3,066 residents.

* * *

"Hey sweetie," Tina greets Amanda on the phone as she heads over to the sandwich shop to pick up something for lunch. "How'd the presentation go?"

"It went fine. Feeling any better?"

"Yup, it was a slow day at the store though. I can't imagine it'll stay open much longer at this rate. Everyone buys their books online, it seems like." Tina hesitated. "You know, I know we only just bought the house, but..."

"We can't afford a house in Bellview," Amanda interrupted Tina. "And I hate apartments."

"We could always look at condos or town-homes. Those would be in our price range." Tina wondered if they could get out of town today. Tonight even. Just... leave this place behind. As long as they were together, they could work things out.

"Let's talk it over this weekend, alright?" Amanda sighed, then admitted, "I do hate the long drive and if your job really does look like it's about to go up in smoke, well... better we get out ahead of it while we can. Andromeda's gotten awfully quiet lately; feels like the town is drying up."

"I know what you mean." Tina frowned at the door she'd been about to open. There's a closed sign that she could've sworn hadn't been there when she'd been walking up. But the place is empty, deserted. "Lucky Sandwiches is closed," she huffed. "Must be a sign."

Amanda laughed. "I guess you're just gonna have to give in and do JJs or that deli place down the road."

"Yeah. JJs I can walk to, so I'll just head across the street for that."

It's on the tip of Tina's tongue to tell Amanda to stay in Bellview, that she'll drive out with their bags and they can stay in a motel or something. The feeling of wrongness is worse than before.

She says goodbye instead.

* * *

The town of Andromeda has 2,577 residents.

* * *

Tina walks back home from work that afternoon.

There's a four way stop and one of the stop signs looks odd and Tina can't quite put her finger on why she thinks it should be damaged when its pristine. The whole corner looks fine, if a bit overgrown. The houses are dilapidated and its weird to think that this was once a bustling neighborhood with kids.

There haven't been kids playing on this street in months. Andromeda's public schools are so empty, they're in danger of closing. The kid's will have to take long bus rides to and from Bellview if the population drops much further.

There's a feeling of despair in Tina's chest that she tries not sob with the sudden force of it.

She'll go home, make a nice candle lit dinner for two, and insist to Amanda she can't live in this dying town anymore. 

Once they're moved to Bellview, she can start hinting around at marriage to see if that's something Amanda is interested in yet. Things will be so much better once they get out of this town.

She hurries past the intersection, eyes averted, wondering why she'd expect to see children playing robots and time lords in the bright summer sun in the first place.

* * *

The town of Andromeda has 2,122 residents.

* * *

Tina is putting the last touches on dinner when she hears Amanda's car pull up in the garage. Lighting the candles, Tina waited for Amanda to come inside.

And waited.

Finally she went to check the garage to see what was taking Amanda so long.

The car was there. The driver's door was open. But there was no Amanda.

There was no Amanda.

In a daze, Tina ran back into the house, to the pictures of them together that were scattered across the living room. But as she picked them up she watched - one by one with increasing frantic terror - as Amanda faded from the frames entirely, until only Tina was left.

The candles were burning low and Tina had made a mess of the living room in her panic. She couldn't remember why she'd scattered the pictures every where and the garage door was open.

She went to close the garage door - the garage itself was empty of course. Tina didn't own a car of her own. She shared with... with... she took public transportation everywhere. Like the bus she'd take in the morning to Bellview to start apartment hunting.

Touching her face, Tina didn't know why she was crying.

* * *

The town of Andromeda has 1,864 residents.

* * *

Tina can't sleep in her bed alone. There should be someone to hold her, but there isn't.

She can't imagine why she got this big house - this big bed - on her own without anyone, even a pet, to share it with. She eventually turns on her laptop, looking at apartment buildings and job listings.

She'll get out of here. She has to get out of here.

Eventually the clacking on the keyboard stops. The laptop fades, the light dims.

No one lives in this house anymore.

No one has lived in this house for some time, it seems.

* * *

The town of Andromeda was empty in the morning. But of course, Andromeda had been empty for years. 

There's a highway nearby - an interstate - with an off ramp leading to Andromeda that no body uses; its fallen into disrepair. And a sign, equally broken, that pronounces the town of Andromeda ahead, with a population of over 6,000. But of course... nobody lives in Andromeda.

No one that can be remembered, anyway.


End file.
